Ten Before Tenure

The continual development of knowledge about what kinds of teaching practices best support student learning is an important part of the tenure process. The Ten Before Tenure program is designed to provide pre-tenure Boise State faculty opportunities to enhance their understanding of evidence based teaching practices, interact and share ideas with colleagues, and build a portfolio of teaching knowledge that can be used as part of the tenure portfolio.

Ten Before Tenure Forms and Resources

Teaching Experiences

Four of the experiences, intended to provide a well-rounded basis for teaching development, are “required”.

Experience 1:Course Design Institute or workshop

This engages participants in using a “backwards” course design process to plan a new course or redesign an old one. The focus is on engaging students in significant learning experiences. [offered in January as a workshop and in May as a weeklong institute].

Experience 2: Digital Fluency for Instructors

At Boise State we define digital fluency as “an evolving aptitude that empowers the individual to effectively and ethically interpret information, discover meaning, design content, construct knowledge, and communicate ideas in a digitally-connected world.” In order to enhance your own digital fluency, choose one of the workshops offered by the IDEA Shop. Such an event might be focused on the use of mobile learning strategies, maximizing the use of Blackboard, or other topics.

Experience 3:Faculty Orientation to Service Learning

Boise State is nationally recognized for its Service-Learning Program. Service-Learning involves the design of courses to include a student service experience connected in an explicit way to the course content and learning outcomes. This workshop describes course models, sample syllabi, mini-grants, logistical support, best practices, and consultation services. (Offered early each fall semester)

The route to excellent teaching is highly individualized. For this reason, Ten Before Tenure recommends that you take advantage of one of the following customized and confidential opportunities to reflect on your teaching.

Classroom Observation: A CTL consultant can observe instructional practices in any instructional environment. After the visit, the consultant will discuss with the instructor what was observed. Together, they develop strategies for further experimentation and refinement, and identify areas for ongoing reflection.

Mid-semester Assessment Process (MAP): Conducted at mid-semester (weeks 5-9) a MAP provides student feedback on a course in process. A CTL consultant meets with students in a class to collect their thoughts about the class, and then meets with the instructor to discuss student responses.

Experiences 5-10:

The remaining experiences are left to your discretion so that you can choose events and opportunities which are most relevant to your teaching. They are generally chosen from the following, but could also involve reading a book or creating a literature bibliography on a particular aspect of teaching and learning.

CTL Workshops: It is recommended that you choose topics spread across a wide range of areas. A list of the workshop opportunities for the current semester can be found at http://CTL.boisestate.edu.

Off-campus conference or workshop: There are often opportunities to attend off-campus workshops or conferences focused on teaching. The experience may be general or disciplinary-based, and could be a conference session that is a larger part of a scholarly meeting.

Boise State Teaching Scholars or other Faculty Learning Community: Faculty Learning Communities provide an opportunity to deeply engage with a particular question or teaching issue. The Boise State Teaching Scholars for Early Career Faculty, as well as our other FLCs are designed to stimulate dialogue, reflection and innovation in teaching and foster a sense of community.

Teaching Presentation: The CTL offers a variety of ways for instructors to share their innovative teaching strategies with the Boise State community and beyond. Opportunities include presenting/co-presenting a CTL workshop or Active Learning at Lunch, creating a poster for the Boise State Teaching Scholars or Great Ideas Symposium poster sessions, or writing a scholarly article.

Teaching Reflection

The second component of the Ten Before Tenure program is a 1-2 page written reflection on your development as a teacher (or teaching philosophy) and a statement of plans for your ongoing development as a teacher.

Enrollment and Program Completion

Enrollment serves to register your interest in completing the program and allows the CTL to provide you with ongoing support as you complete the program. One may enroll at any point in the pre-tenure process, and experiences completed before enrollment can serve toward completion of the program. To enroll, please complete this enrollment form.

Completion forms for Ten Before Tenure are found here. The form will prompt you to provide a list of your ten experiences as well as your teaching reflection statement. A certificate of completion is signed by the Provost for inclusion in your tenure review file.